Marysville teachers strike takes rising toll on families

MARYSVILLE — The Marysville teachers strike, now in its 34th day, has taken a financial toll as well as an emotional one on exasperated families.

Some parents blame school district administration, and some the teachers. Others find fault with both sides.

The Herald received more than 50 e-mails and phone calls from parents who responded to a newspaper request for anecdotes about how their families have been affected financially or in other ways by the strike.

While some people point out that the school year is 180 days, regardless of when it begins, and day-care costs spent now can be saved next summer, many parents say the inability to plan ahead for a prolonged strike has left them in financial distress. Some face unexpected day-care costs, while others are losing wages because they are staying at home to watch their children.

Many parents said it is not so much the money but the disruption to their lives and damage to the community that troubles them most.

Here are their stories:

Karla Neiser makes less than $30,000 a year and can’t afford medical insurance or day care. Still, she considers herself lucky to be paying only $50 a week for three days of child care.

"So far, it has cost me $250 and one trip to the doctor’s office with my 10-year-old child, who broke out in hives due to stress. I have not yet received that bill," she said.

Neiser said she wishes she could lock the teachers and district in a room until they are sick of each other and forced to settle.

She said she would ask the district: "How many nights of sleep have they lost because they had to get up and deal with a crying child and not be able to answer their questions about when can they get back to school?"

Craig Skomski, a union electrician, was unemployed before he found a new job that started Sept. 2. His wife, Paula, is a registered nurse. The family quickly arranged day care for his two sons, ages 9 and 10, beginning Aug. 29.

Since then, the Skomskis have paid $1,630 in day care, which is almost 1 1/2times their mortgage payment, Paula Skomski said.

"We would have been better off it he had stayed on unemployment until the strike ended," she said. "The school board needs to start negotiating."

Barbara Alfond, a real estate agent with two children enrolled in Marysville schools, found her house full of kids on Friday afternoon. Five neighborhood children had parents at work and needed a place to stay.

She has spent parts of her days home-schooling her children, and 15 hours trying to gather facts and understand the complexity of the strike. Her family has spent more than $800 on day care and $50 on water and snacks for the striking teachers.

Alfond also worries about how prepaid vacations her family has scheduled will be affected.

All the while, she is losing money because she can’t work as many hours as she usually does.

"This just eats away at the parents and kids," she said.

Marrian Young can’t afford to pay the cost of day care. With a patient employer, she has been allowed to take her daughter, Darian, 9, with her to her job as a caregiver for an 85-year-old woman in failing health. She wants her daughter to understand life’s lessons and the aging process, but fears she is getting too much of a dose at once.

"I know going to school is not day care, but this is kind of hard on both of us," she said.

Ken and Beth Mock have children in the Marysville School District, and both work. She is a teacher at Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School and feels fortunate that she’s off with her children during the summer.

"For every day that this strike goes on, we have to pay a baby-sitter, and lose a day with my kids next summer," she said. "The baby-sitter costs $40 a day; the days I’m losing with my kids — priceless."

Bo Vieweg, a computer systems manager for an Everett manufacturing company, is a single father with three children, ages 7, 9 and 11. He points to the poor local economy and said he has supported the district’s position in negotiations.

"The Arlington Boys &Girls Club has been a godsend in providing a strike camp so my children have somewhere to go during the day while I’m at work in Everett," Vieweg said.

Still, he is paying $300 a week for child care, compared with $250 a month he would usually pay for after-school care.

Melysa Harmon, a guardian for her 13-year-old sister, Veronica, said the financial hit has been minimal, but there are intangible costs.

"Sanity is underrated when it comes to striking teachers, at least when a district reaches the five-week mark," she said. "And while it only cost me $2.97 for Ms. Clairol Blonde to cover the streak of strike found in the mane of my 31-year-old graying hair, it has cost me patience that, prior to the chanting sign-holders, I had no clue I even had.

"I take no sides, unless this is a three-sided dilemma where students sit in the middle, humdrum and worried that they are being overlooked in the name of cashola and (the) pitiful "p" word, politics. It’s an ugly argument, almost like a divorce."

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.